There is a wealth of innovation underway in communities. Confronted with a range of interconnected and increasingly complex challenges, leaders from every sector are searching for new ideas and approaches. What is most surprising is that often the innovations that show the most promise are those that combine existing resources in new ways. This pattern of social innovation is often referred to as bricolage.
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Community Engagement so often relies on citizens feeling an affinity and commitment towards their local area or an issue, but what is unique about engaging community in a rural area? What methodologies can be used to increase participation? How can we ensure that all voices are heard? In rural areas it is often harder to focus on one shared issue and to unite a community when individuals are geographically dispersed and each encounters their own nuanced lifestyle and related issues.
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After one of seven Deepening Community with Collective Impact workshops in Australia and New Zealand, I was interviewed by Paul Bishop in Redland City, Australia, about the true cost of deepening community both socially and economically.
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I am known to say, “The Obstacle is the Path.” It’s a Zen koan, a type of puzzle, and I suggest an ancient example of upside down thinking.
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In the fall of 2010, I attended my first Tamarack Communities Collaborating Institute. I read every piece of material on the suggested material and I thought I was ready to take everything in over the next 5 days. By day 2 I was exhausted, my hand was so sore from writing so much and my brain was reaching it's digestive capacity. The last time I remember feeling this way was when I was young and I read through several volumes of our Childrens' Encyclopedia Britannica.
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Considerable attention is being paid to the role and importance of community engagement in successful collective impact efforts. The recent paper entitled Putting Community in Collective Impact by Richard Harwood and published by the Collective Impact Forum, dives more deeply into this important issue and concludes that, "civic culture matters for Collective Impact. Big Time!" Civic culture refers to the unique characteristics that describe "how a community works: how trust is formed, why and how people engage with each other; and the degree of readiness for change amongst leaders." Each community has its own civic culture and paying attention to it, makes it possible to accelerate and deepen collective impact efforts.
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